This quatrain is part of a series that focuses on the helplessness of humanity. We are all just puppets, moved here and there, by the Puppet Master, whose intentions are unknown to us. Even the sky above us cannot help us for it too is helpless.
First Edition: Quatrain LII
And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to It for help--for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.
Second Edition: Quatrain LXXVIII
And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die,
Lift not your hands to It for help--for It
As impotently rolls as you or I.
Fifth Edition: Quatrain LXXII
And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die,
Lift not your hands to It for help--for It
As impotently moves as you or I.
FitzGerald made mostly minor changes over the five editions. He substituted "you" for "thou" in the second and fifth editions. Another change occurred in the fifth edition when he replaced "we call" with "they call." I'm not sure why he did this, for it distances somewhat the reader from the quatrain. It's not we who call the Bowl the Sky but they, someone else.
The other change was in the last line when he replaced "Rolls impotently on as Thou or I." with "As impotently rolls as you or I" in the second and fifth editions. FitzGerald then made one more alteration when he substituted "moves" for "rolls" in the fifth edition. "Moves" is vague in comparison to "rolls," and it is a far weaker verb, in my estimation. "Rolls" has an inevitability about it, something unstoppable once started, but where it is going and what started it is unknown, for it too is controlled by the Player. I think FitzGerald should have left it as it was in the first edition.
It's a common image in painting, sculpture, and literature: the defiant shaking fists at the heavens or the supplicant pleading for help from the heavens. The Poet here tells us that either is a waste of time for It has no more power than do we.
Hi, Fred. I love The Rubaiyat and have for nearly sixty years now. Sometimes I might go years without reading much of it, but I always seem to return to it. I added you to my blogroll.
ReplyDeletemadamevauquer (Dagny),
ReplyDeleteI too have long enjoyed the Rubaiyat, and the blog seemed a perfect way to slowly go through it and comment.
I don't remember how long I've been reading it, off and on, but it's probably at least a half century. I first encountered it when parts of several quatrains were used at the beginning of several short stories I read.
I hope to finish the 75 quatrains this year. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do about the quatrains FitzGerald added to the four succeeding editions. Perhaps I may go through them also.